Recirculating Ball Slide for 1" Square Tube (Improved)

thingiverse

This is an improved version of my earlier ball slide (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:943122). It also uses 6mm dia airsoft pellets as bearing balls, but it is lower-profile and runs a little more smoothly. Note that while it looks like the balls in the oval circuit will just scrub against the tube, one leg of the circuit is raised slightly while the rest of the circuit is recessed so that the balls can recirculate freely. So how smooth and precise is this ball slide? Firstly, by adjusting the clamping screws, you can tighten it to take out all backlash. However, being made our of plastic, is is never going to be as stiff as a hardened steel slide. You can increase the stiffness some by increasing the preload, but as you do, the movement becomes less smooth, and you increase the wear. For the most part, this is really only recommended for light or intermittent duty applications. It would be great for use on FRC robots.